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Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife
Mr. Monk And The Captain's Wife is the fourteenth episode of the second season of Monk. Plot When he is a Captain of the San Francisco Police Department's Homicide division, Leland Stottlemeyer is good at his job. But as a husband and a father, he is not as good. His wife, Karen, departs the house one morning to shoot another documentary, after yet another argument with her husband about the cost of her equipment. She pulls out of the driveway without an "I love you," to Leland. On the road leading to the highway, a sniper is taking aim at a tow truck pulling a repossessed car. A single shot is fired through the windshield, killing the driver and causing the truck to swerve into the opposite lane, right into Karen’s path. Karen cannot stop her van from crashing into the back of the truck. Monk is waiting outside his house to supervise the collection of his garbage. Stottlemeyer, who is in the neighborhood, drops by with Monk’s latest consulting fee. He notices that Monk is still wearing the watch that Trudy gave him, even though it no longer keeps good time. He suggests that maybe it's time Monk try to let go of his attachment to Trudy. Monk is distracted by the arrival of the garbage men, substituting for the normal ones on that route, who quickly go crazy with Monk’s special instructions. Then Disher pulls up, telling Stottlemeyer about the accident. Everyone rushes to the hospital, where Karen is in critical condition. After speaking with her doctor, Stottlemeyer turns to Disher, who gives him a preliminary on their investigation and assures him that every officer in the department is volunteering to assist. Monk asks what he can do, and Stottlemeyer says, “you know what you can do, Monk.” Monk and Sharona accompany Disher to the crime scene. Disher explains that the sniper waited behind a sand pile at a construction site, and fired a single round. Monk notices a hole in a chain-link fence with a torn piece of a shirt, and realizes that the killer crawled through the fence. The strangest thing, Disher notes, is that the shooter was barefoot. Just as strange, the driver is also barefoot. As they investigate, Sharona notices a dog nosing around, and picks it up. Randy comes up with a possible lead: a local labor union is on strike while in negotiations with the city, and the driver of the tow truck was a "scab," (i.e., a union member who refused to strike and continued working). The union’s sleazy head, Harry Bolston, is a shady character, but claims to know nothing about the shooting. Monk is not so sure about the union's involvement, noting that the negotiations are going in the union's favor. Meanwhile, Sharona returns the dog to its owner, a handsome man named Evan Coker. As they flirt, she asks him whether he heard anything on the morning of the shooting, which happened nearby. He says no, and she mentions that the police think it’s a union dispute, but Monk doesn’t think so. While they are talking, Monk notices that a sundial in the adjacent neighbor’s yard is off, and starts to adjust it, when she throws him off her property for trespassing. That night, Coker uses his rifle to kill a luckless scab leaving the depot and approaching the union picket. Over a session with Dr. Kroger, Monk admits that, as worried as he is about Karen and Stottlemeyer, a small part of him is glad that now Stottlemeyer understands what Monk goes through every day, facing life without Trudy. Stottlemeyer becomes increasingly unhinged, even though Karen’s condition improves. He is starting to focus solely on the case of the tow truck driver's murder, he also assumes that because they use the same gun, they are from the same Union. In addition, he tries to have "small talk" with Harry Bolston, who was also in the middle of contacting Agent Grooms, to which he also beats up his second in command, where Bolston summarily covers up for Stottlemeyer by claiming the man tripped, while also telling him before leaving that he wasn't involved in either shooting. While they are all visiting her in the hospital, she asks Monk to take the Stottlemeyer boys, Jared and Max, out for pizza at a 1950s style restaurant, since everyone else is too busy (Stottlemeyer has to be at the Police Department, and Sharona has to take Benjy to the dentist). He reluctantly agrees. He is completely out of his depth, especially when the pizza parlor’s staff start dancing to the jukebox, but then one of the staff inadvertently bumps into the table causing it to be slightly moved ajar, and Monk solves the case. He explains the case on the woman's lawn with Sharona, only for the neighbor to tell him to leave her property. He also tells Sharona that, although he does wish that woman was the culprit, she's not. He telephones Stottlemeyer, who is about to lead a full-scale raid of the union’s headquarters, and tells him to stand down. Here’s What Happened Monk calls Stottlemeyer and Disher to the car that was being towed when the first driver was shot. The car belongs to Coker. At first, Disher and Stottlemeyer are confused, as he didn't seem to mind his car getting repossessed, and got a new car anyways, but Monk explains that he wasn't concerned about the car, but what was in the car: He then has Stottlemeyer sniff the glovebox contents, which Stottlemeyer states smelled like gun oil. On the day of the accident, Coker woke up suddenly in the morning to hear the tow truck repossessing his car, which had a handgun in the glovebox connecting him to some other crime. He grabbed his rifle and rushed out of the house without putting on his shoes or closing the gate behind him, allowing the dog to escape. He rushed through the neighborhood, upsetting the neighbor’s sundial, and down through the chain link fence. After shooting the driver, he retrieved his gun from the car, and took the driver’s shoes so he wouldn’t have to go home barefoot, especially as there was gravel nearby that would prevent him from going home barefoot. After hearing from Sharona that Monk had doubts about the union angle, Coker fired another shot at the picket, to throw the police off. Stottlemeyer gets a search warrant and the task force storms into Coker’s home, with Stottlemeyer stating that his wife was saved by the doctors, and he'd better thank them because the doctors saved Coker's life as well. Stottlemeyer and Monk share a moment, Stottlemeyer finally having an idea of what it feels like to lose, or be afraid of losing, someone they love so much. Unfortunately, they find neither the gun nor the shoes, nor the rifle. Monk realizes that it’s garbage day, and the truck has just been to the house. He runs after the truck. The garbage men see him coming and refuse to stop, instead telling the driver to step on it. Unwilling to give up, Monk leaps into the back of the truck, choking back the smell, and starts pulling out trash bags before the automatic compactor crushes them. In one of the bags, Disher finds the shoes, and a Beretta of the same make that was used in a bank robbery at Delmare the previous Monday, in which the robber shot and killed a 22 year old bank clerk. Stottlemeyer grabs Coker and throws him to the ground, wanting nothing more than to hurt him, badly. Sharona and Disher tell him to back off, it isn’t worth losing his badge over. Stottlemeyer gains control of himself, and Coker is arrested. Leland brings Karen home from the hospital, and the boys run to greet her. Leland presents Karen with her new digital camera, and they embrace lovingly. Background Information and Notes *On the Monk Cast Favorites Marathon, this episode was shown as one of Ted Levine's favorites. *Morris and Ronnie reappear in Season Five's "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike." Quotes Stottlemeyer: Who was it?! Disher: ...We don’t have him, yet. Stottlemeyer: I want everybody... Disher: You got them, sir. Stottlemeyer: Monk, you don't know how I'm feeling! Monk: I think I know better than you think I do! (Stottlemeyer stops) The place where you are right now... it's where I live every day. Sharona: (visiting Karen in the hospital) How do you feel? Karen: (grinning) Like I got hit by a truck. Max: (to Monk) Say something crazy. Jared: Hey Max, he’s not crazy, okay? He’s just... troubled. Adrian Monk: Thank you, Jared. Disher: Captain! That was Monk. (Everyone freezes.) Disher: He says he solved the case. Stottlemeyer: He what? Disher: He says it's not a union thing. Stottlemeyer: Is he sure? Disher: ...He's Monk. Evan Coker: How’s your wife? Stottlemeyer: My wife is going to be fine. The doctors saved her life. You should call and thank them, because they saved yours too. Monk: (indicating Stottlemeyer's gun) You might want to let the lieutenant hold that for you. Stottlemeyer: Why? Are you afraid I'll use it? Monk: I would. Stottlemeyer: I understand now, Monk. You can't let it go, can you? Monk: No. Stottlemeyer: Don't ever lose that watch. Monk: I won't. Karen: You said we couldn’t afford it! Leland: It’s only money. Karen: Only money? Leland: Yeah. Karen: Who got hit on the head, me or you? Leland: That would be me. 2.14 Levine, Ted